The feeding of animals has necessarily become more automated during the past few years due, at least in part, to increased labor and feed costs, necessitating, among other things, handling of a greater number of animals with greater feeding efficiency.
Where the animals are grown for meat consumption, it is desirable, of course, to approach the maximum possible yield of salable meat in relation to the amount of feed consumed by the animals. Over the years nutritionists have been able to blend better feed rations by addition of vitamins, nutrients, minerals and other feedstuff ingredients which have resulted in substantial savings through faster growth of the animal and a better ratio of salable meat produced per pound of feed consumed by the animals. In growing poultry, it has been found that poultry feeds should commonly include a number of ingredients, and the percentages of each such ingredient can be varied somewhat to allow the nutritionist a certain amount of latitude as to the amount of each ingredient to be utilized in the feed. Thus, as the price of feed ingredients increases or decreases in the market place, the percentages, within tolerances, can be altered, perhaps by the aid of a computer, in an attempt to maintain the amount and price of consumed feed at a minimum.
The advantages to be gained through better feeds at minimum cost can be lost, however, if the feed is not utilized in an effective manner. In this connection, the more concentrated feeds frequently pass quickly through the digestive tract of the fowl, or animals, with only a portion of their nutritive value being utilized. It has been discovered that after feeding these concentrated feeds for several hours, if they are withdrawn for a period of time, such as an hour, the poultry better digest more of the nutritive ingredients from the feeds, resulting in feed savings.
It has been the general practice in recent years to store large quantities of feed in bins or silos outside the poultry, or animal, enclosures. From these large storing bins, conveying systems, or augers, are commonly utilized to deliver the feedstuff into the building housing the poultry, where the feed is placed in hoppers for distribution by automatic feeding systems to pans or troughs from which the animals eat directly.
While systems have been suggested and/or utilized for restricting feeding of animals, no economically feasible system for restricting feeding for poultry and other animals has been heretofore found that adapts readily to existing automatic hopper filling systems and existing feeding systems while keeping the individual design and advantages of these systems intact, such as, for example, delivering equal quantities and qualities of feedstuffs or rations to all parts of a poultry or livestock building simultaneously, keeping birds or animals from crowding or bruising one another as feeding begins, keeping animals or fowl from being hurt or injured by moving parts of the feeding system, and providing easily adjustable feeder arrangements at a height at which animals or fowl may eat with a minimum of waste, such as is caused by fowl or animals merely raking feed from the pans or troughs into the floor or ground where the feed is wasted. Much feed is now wasted in at least some prior art systems after poultry have eaten their fill by the poultry tasting the feed for lack of anything more to do and letting it spill out of their mouths onto the floor or ground.
Systems have also heretofore been suggested for use in poultry feeding wherein the feeding pans are suspended in such a manner that the height can be adjusted as the birds grow. In addition, systems have heretofore been suggested for intermittent feeding of poultry by closing the feeding area as by doors, for example, or raising a feeding trough so that the poultry cannot reach the feed.
There are various systems of pans and troughs that have been utilized into which feed is provided for fowl or animals. Automatic filling units and the like have commonly included a large many-ton external storage bin outside the building and a conveyer or auger system to convey feed to feed hoppers within the building, which hoppers may be kept filled by volume pressure switches. Heretofore, however, there has been no economical method for readily adapting such feeder and hopper filling systems to an automatic system whereby feeding time is electrically controlled and regulated to periodically remove the feed, while at the same time not adversely affecting the automatic filling unit.